The European Revolt Continues

The Czech Republic’s parliamentary election represented yet another rebellion against Europe’s political elites. The winning party, ANO, is considered centrist and won nearly 30% of the vote. Its leader, Andrej Babis, is a billionaire and has been described as a Czech Donald Trump. The Associated Press reports:

The centrist ANO movement led by populist Andrej Babis decisively won the Czech Republic’s parliamentary election Saturday in a vote that shifted the country to the right and paved the way for the euroskeptic billionaire to become its next prime minister.

With virtually all votes counted, the Czech Statistics Office said Saturday that ANO won in a landslide with 29.7 percent of the vote.
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In a blow to the country’s traditional political elite, four of the top five vote-getting parties Saturday were ones that have challenged the traditional political mainstream.

The Pirate Party finished third in the voting, which should tell us something. Expressing the condescending attitude that voters across Europe are rejecting, the AP tells us that “Some [parties] have exploited fears of immigration and Islam….” Of course immigration can never be a legitimate issue, rather it is simply a matter of “exploiting fears.” But immigration skepticism is a majority view: “Like most Czech parties, ANO also rejects accepting refugees under the EU’s quota system.”

A second story, this one from Germany, illustrates what so many Europeans are rebelling against: Germany: Full Censorship Now Official.

A new German law introducing state censorship on social media platforms came into effect on October 1, 2017. The new law requires social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to censor their users on behalf of the German state. Social media companies are obliged to delete or block any online “criminal offenses” such as libel, slander, defamation or incitement, within 24 hours of receipt of a user complaint — regardless of whether or the content is accurate or not.

We all know where employees of social media companies are most likely to detect “libel” or “incitement,” especially when they are trying to avoid a 50 million euro fine. A recent case illustrates what the German government has in mind:

Meanwhile, the district court in Munich recently sentenced a German journalist, Michael Stürzenberger, to six months in jail for posting on his Facebook page a historical photo of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, shaking the hand of a senior Nazi official in Berlin in 1941. The prosecution accused Stürzenberger of “inciting hatred towards Islam” and “denigrating Islam” by publishing the photograph.

Europeans can’t revolt fast enough, or thoroughly enough.

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